This application claims the priority of German Patent Document 101 40 435.2, filed on Aug. 17, 2001, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to an exhaust system having a tail pipe arrangement which extends adjacent to a wall part of a body of a motor vehicle.
A known exhaust system for a motor vehicle, as in European Patent Document EP 0 848144 A1, has an exhaust pipe whose free end is provided with a tail pipe arrangement. The tail pipe arrangement has a double-walled construction, for which an interior shell and an exterior shell are provided. The interior shell and the exterior shell are arranged with respect to one another such that an air gap or a ring duct is formed. At the rearward end of the tail pipe arrangement, the ring duct is closed; it is open at the forward end. As a result, a targeted heat dissipation is achieved at the tail pipe arrangement.
From German Patent Document DE 1 948 939 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,037, an end piece is known for the exhaust pipe of a motor vehicle driven by an internal-combustion engine, which end piece extends at a distance from a transversely extending vehicle body wall. This distance is required so that, during the operation of the internal-combustion engine, the end piece can carry out relative movements with respect to the vehicle body wall. However, this design makes the formal integration of the end piece into the adjacent vehicle body wall more difficult.
U.S. Patent Document U.S. Pat. No. 2,992,035 relates to such an integration and reflects a tail pipe arrangement of an exhaust system of a motor vehicle, which tail pipe arrangement, viewed in the driving direction, is surrounded in front of the bumper by such a funnel-type pipe extension such that the tail pipe arrangement is movably disposed relative to the pipe extension. By means of its rearward end, the pipe extension penetrates an opening in a wall of the bumper and is therefore constructionally and visually combined with the bumper. This construction has the disadvantage that the bearing of the tail pipe arrangement and the pipe extension, including its integration in the bumper, cause relatively high constructional expenditures.
An aspect of the invention is to provide a tail pipe arrangement for an exhaust system of a motor vehicle which, on the one hand, is correspondingly disposed with respect to the required relative movements and, on the other hand, is integrated in the dimensional structure of a body of the motor vehicle. However, in this case, it should be ensured that the heat in the area of the tail pipe arrangement does not damage adjoining wall parts of the vehicle body.
According to certain preferred embodiments of the invention, this aspect is achieved in that viewed in a driving direction of the motor vehicle, the tail pipe arrangement is situated by way of a first fee end in front of the wall part of the vehicle body, and, viewed from a rearward side of the motor vehicle upon the tail pipe arrangement, a first contour of a lower end area of the wall part corresponds at least in sections basically with an outer second contour of the tail pipe arrangement. Additional characteristics advantageously developing the invention are described below.
Some principal advantages achieved by way of certain preferred embodiments of the invention are that the tail pipe arrangement of the exhaust system forms a formal unit with the adjacent wall part of the vehicle body which also optimizes the appearance of the motor vehicle without being impaired thereby with respect to the relative movements occurring during the operation of the internal-combustion engine of the motor vehicle. As a result, it is achieved that, viewed in the driving direction, the tail pipe arrangement is situated with its free or rearward end in front of the wall part of the vehicle body, and an end section of the wall part, which faces the tail pipe arrangement, basically corresponds with an outer contour of the above-mentioned tail pipe arrangement. The wall part may be formed by a panel which may be inserted into a rear covering consisting of a plastic material. In order to protect the rear covering from high-temperature exhaust gas flows, the panel is constructed as a heat shield. Finally, the screen, which may be painted or chromium-plated, is an easily producible component and can easily be connected with the rear covering.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.